The New York Yankees defeated the Texas Rangers by a score of 6-5 in a wild Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. CC Sabathia looked awful in only four innings of work and CJ Wilson looked solid for 7+, but Dustin Moseley actually earned the win for the Yankees, going perfect for two innings while striking out four. Mariano Rivera came in to save what is certainly one of the best Yankee postseason victories in recent memory.

Derek Jeter Smashes an RBI Double - Elsa / Getty Images (I know famous types like to go by single names, but Elsa the Photographer? C'mon

Final

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

R

H

E

Yankees

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

5

0

6

10

1

Rangers

3

0

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

5

7

1

CC Sabathia picked a poor time to make his worst start of the year. He gave up three runs on four hits and three walks in the first inning, and the Rangers never looked back. If I knew these were the two starters lines before the game, I certainly would not have said that Sabathia would be the one with five earned runs in four innings, which made tonight’s game his shortest start of the year.

CC Sabathia

4 IP

5 ER

6 H

3 K

4 BB

CJ Wilson

7+ IP

3 ER

6 H

4 K

2 BB

Although the Yankees were down early, they did eventually make the game enjoyable. Brett Gardner dove headfirst for an infield single, Derek Jeter doubled him in, and Nick Swisher and Mark Texeira worked walks. Alex Rodriguez came up huge with a two-run single to cut the lead to one. Robinson Cano kept the rally going by hitting a smashing single up the middle to tie up the game. Marcus Thames kept what John Sterling called “one of the best Yankee rallies in postseason history” going by smashing yet another single to put the Yankees on top. The bottom three in the order were retired in order, but the damage was clearly done…

Here are some fun stats from the top of the eighth:

Five runs scored

Five pitchers used by the Rangers

Five hits

Two walks

Seven Yankees reached base before a single out was recorded

One feature I love of the Yankees blog River Ave Blues is that with every game recap, they post the winning percentages given any situation in the game. I’d like to see what the Rangers win percentage was after the first inning. As fan favorite Suzyn Waldman pointed out, fans will “forget the struggles of CC Sabathia and forget the great performance of CJ Wilson” if the Yankees win. I’m not going to forget how ugly this game looked for six innings, but it was great to see the Yankees put a huge rally together.

One juicy bit of information I almost forgot to mention was just how well the Yankees left-handed bats did against the lefties of the Rangers. Robinson Cano, Brett Gardner, and Curtis Granderson went a combined 6-10 with a home run, two RBIs, two runs, and two walks. The Yankees need these three to produce to get past Cliff Lee and the Rangers.

Tomorrow, the Rangers will look to avenge the Yankees to send the series to the Bronx tied at one win apiece.

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